On Tuesday evening, an Israeli airstrike killed Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut, Lebanon. Simply hours earlier than Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran, the Palestinian group blamed Israel.
Hezbollah confirmed Shouk’s dying in an airstrike on Wednesday evening, a day after Israel claimed it killed the chief.
Right here’s what we learn about Shook and why he’s thought-about an essential goal by Israel.
Who’s Fouad Shukr?
“Shook is one in all a number of senior Hezbollah officers who have been among the many founders of the group’s army wing,” stated Nicholas Blanford, an skilled on Hezbollah on the Atlantic Council suppose tank.
“They’ve been residing within the shadows,” he stated of the group’s army leaders. Nonetheless, Israeli army officers describe Shukr as a detailed adviser to Hezbollah Secretary-Basic Hassan Nasrallah and the person accountable for buying a lot of the group’s extra superior weapons, “together with precision-guided missiles, cruise missiles, Anti-ship missiles, long-range missiles.” Lengthy-range rockets and drones”.
Hezbollah says Shouk was a key pal of former Hezbollah army commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated by Israel in Damascus in 2008 and who has since risen by way of the ranks of the group .
Why is Israel concentrating on him now?
Based on Israeli army planners, Shukr was accountable for a missile assault on 12 kids taking part in soccer in Majdal Shams within the occupied Golan Heights on Saturday. Hezbollah denied accountability for the assault.
The assault proved a flashpoint in Israeli politics when a delegation of Israeli ministers tried to attend the funerals of among the kids who died, however ignored requests not to take action and have been verbally attacked by villagers mourning the lacking kids.
On Monday, Israel’s Safety Council approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Protection Minister Yove Galante to take any motion they deem applicable.
How was Shuke killed?
On the time of the strike, Shook was positioned within the Haret Hreik district of Dania, a southern suburb of Beirut.
A Hezbollah assertion stated that “brother Fouad Shukr (Hajj Mohsen), the nice jihadist commander, was current” in a constructing attacked by “Zionist enemies.”
Footage of the constructing after the assault confirmed in depth harm, with rubble and particles scattered onto the road beneath. The Lebanese Well being Ministry confirmed that three civilians, together with two kids, have been killed and 74 injured in what Israel known as an “intelligence-based elimination” operation.
![[Handout/US State Department]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/21-July-Fuad-Shukr-English-1722427020.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C451)
What’s Shukr’s historical past with Hezbollah?
Shukr, also called al-Hajj Mohsen, was born in Nabatiyah, Baalbek, jap Lebanon.
Twenty years later, after Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, he turned one of many founders of Hezbollah. of explosions.
Based on the Israeli army, Shook directed quite a few assaults over the subsequent decade in opposition to the Israeli military and its former ally, the South Lebanon Military (SLA).
In 2000, Israeli officers accused him of masterminding the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli troopers throughout a Hezbollah assault within the Shab’a Farms space, a sliver of land on the intersection of Syria, Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that it nonetheless claims dispute.
Along with being needed by Israel, Shook can be needed by the US. A publish on the U.S. authorities’s Rewards for Justice web site provided as much as $5 million for details about Shukr after he was named a “Specifically Designated International Terrorist” in 2019.
How did individuals react to Shook’s homicide?
That day, Galante wrote in English: “The palms of Fuad Shuk “Sayed” Mohsan are stained with the blood of many Israelis. Tonight, we’ve proven that the blood of our individuals There is a worth to pay, and to attain that purpose, nothing is out of attain for our army.
Tonight, the Israel Protection Forces carried out a exact {and professional} operation that eradicated Hezbollah’s prime army commander.
Fuad Shuk “Saeed” Mohsan had the blood of many Israelis on his palms. Tonight, we’ve proven that the blood of our individuals comes at a worth, and there’s no…
— Yoav Gallant (@yoavgallant) July 30, 2024
Inside Lebanon, Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned “Israel’s blatant aggression” and known as the assassination a “legal act” in a “collection of acts of aggression that clearly violate worldwide regulation and kill civilians.”
Jeanne Hennessy-Plaschat, the United Nations particular coordinator for Lebanon, expressed deep concern in regards to the assault and burdened that “there isn’t a army answer to the present battle,” a press release stated.
In Washington, White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre informed reporters that U.S. President Joe Biden insisted {that a} wider battle between Israel and Hezbollah might be averted, saying: “We do not wish to see When the state of affairs escalates, we do not wish to see an all-out battle.
